Page 57 - FAO Aquaculture News, May 2021 - No. 63

Past, Present and Future Scenarios for SDG-aligned

Brine Shrimp Artemia Aquaculture

he 0.5 mm Artemia nauplii that can be easily hatched
Tout from so-called “dried cysts” (in other words inactive
embryos in late gastrula stage) are used as a suitable
substitute for natural live plankton in the feeding of a wide
variety of marine and freshwater crustaceans and fishes. In
the 1960s, two companies in the United States of America ©FAO/N. Van Hoa
started marketing Artemia cysts collected from the salt ©FAO/P. Sorgeloos (photo taken before the COVID-19 pandemic)
ponds in San Francisco Bay, California, and the Great Salt
Thematic Articles hobbyists to prepare live food for their ornamental pets. ©FAO/P. Sorgeloos
Lake, Utah. Initial use of these cysts was by aquarium

As of the 1960s, different research institutes developed the
first hatchery protocols with Artemia nauplii as a crucial
live food source, initially in Japan with Japanese seabream
and kuruma shrimp and soon thereafter in other parts
of the world with other fish, shrimp and prawn species.
Trainee from Kenya at the Artemia field station of Can Tho
University in Vinh Chau, Viet Nam.
The two companies mentioned above started receiving
Harvests of first Artemia produced in Myanmar salt farm.
increasing demands for their products, and market prices Clockwise from top:
Freshly hatched instar I Artemia nauplii.
quickly increased to more than USD 70 per kg despite
inconsistencies in hatching qualities. The possible
dramatic impact of a cyst shortage on the expansion of Confidence increased regarding a future for Artemia in
aquaculture was repeatedly underlined at international hatchery aquaculture and, upon recommendation of FAO,
conferences in 1969 and 1972, culminating at the 1976 the Artemia Reference Center was founded in 1978 at
FAO Technical Conference on Aquaculture in Kyoto, Ghent University in Belgium.
where the conference chairman, the late Dr Ramu Pillay,
stated that it was not advisable to develop an aquaculture An international interdisciplinary approach was adopted
to feed the poor if one had to rely on hard currency to by Artemia experts from Europe and the Americas to
purchase Artemia cysts. address various issues in characterizing species and
strains, develop techniques for processing cysts, large-
However, an alternative idea was postulated that the critical scale hatching and use of Artemia under different
Artemia shortage was solvable and that there were several new product forms, such as decapsulated cysts, cold-
challenges to be addressed, for example exploitation of stored nauplii and enriched metanauplii. More than 65
more natural resources; transplantation and inoculation of scientific articles were published under the common
suitable habitats; improved techniques for cyst harvesting, heading “International Study on Artemia”, international
processing, storage and hatching; as well as the use of conferences were organized, and further extension was
juvenile/adult Artemia biomass. Within the following two ensured through the publication of the FAO Manual
years and with the support of FAO and the Southeast and the organization of many local training courses. This
Asian Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC), the also resulted in the identification and exploitation of new
possibility to produce Artemia in seasonal salt ponds in the natural resources in Australia, Brazil, China, Ecuador,
Philippines and to apply new techniques for Artemia use in Iran (Islamic Republic of), the Russian Federation and
the hatchery were demonstrated. In 1977, a small quantity Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of); and the setting up of
of Artemia franciscana nauplii from San Francisco Bay seasonal Artemia production in coastal artisanal salt works
was introduced in the large salt pond complex in Macau in Kenya, Mozambique, Peru, the Philippines, Sri Lanka,
(Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil), and less than six months Thailand and Viet Nam. As of the 1980s, and especially in
later the first tonne of top-quality cysts was harvested. the 1990s, the commercial hatchery industry experienced
a boom, particularly with marine shrimp aquaculture
growth in Latin America and Asia, and with marine fish
Written by: in Asia and Europe. Annual Artemia cyst consumption
Patrick Sorgeloos increased from less than 100 tonnes in the 1980s to over
E-mail: Patrick.Sorgeloos@UGent.be
2 000 tonnes by the turn of the century.
Ghent University, Belgium
Rodrigo Roubach New resources, mainly in Central Asia (large salt lakes and
E-mail: Rodrigo.Roubach@fao.org lagoons in China, Kazakhstan, Siberia (Russian Federation),
FAO Fisheries Division, Rome, Italy
Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) were tapped and several

56 FAO AQUACULTURE NEWS – Nº. 63 ■ MAY 2021